iFixit tears apart the Nexus 4, finds surprise LTE chip

You still can't (easily) replace that battery, though.

The intrepid hardware tinkerers at iFixit have torn down yet another newly-released gadget. Armed with only a spudger, razor blade, and Torx screwdriver, the gang took apart the Nexus 4's all-glass chassis to jump into the innards that fuel it and take a deeper look at those components.

To start, the rear cover of the phone does not conceal a battery, but rather a number of pressure contacts that power the NFC antenna and connect the induction coil to the motherboard for the Nexus 4's wireless charging capabilities. Though there's a battery connector that's screwed into place, the battery pack is actually secured to the case with adhesive which doesn't bode well for users who might wish to physically replace it in the future. It's interesting to note that the handset also features a 3.8V battery, like the iPhone 5. Underneath that, there's also a speaker enclosure, which is set atop a plastic frame that covers the motherboard, earpiece speaker, and vibrator motor.

On the motherboard, iFixit points out that the Nexus 4 houses a total of five Avago chips—one for the GSM and Edge networks, three for power amplification, and one specifically for the handset's GPS capabilities. What's more: there's also a WTR1605L OVV PKK486R1 chip from Qualcomm tacked on to the motherboard, which we discovered is actually a multi-band 4G LTE chip. It's unclear why it's not providing LTE capabilities to the Nexus 4, but it's possible that this could simply be a case of carrier restriction, or that it's the same chip featured in its sister phone, the Optimus G, and LG has simply left it in there to curb manufacturing costs on the handset.

This particular handset is only somewhat repairable: iFixit gave the Nexus 4 a repairability score of 7 out of 10. The entire device really only contains four different length screws and it's easy to take off the backing with nothing more than a common screwdriver. But, the way the battery is glued to the frame can make it difficult to actually replace it without puncturing it, and the glass is fused to both the display and display frame, so it will cost a pretty penny to get the lot fixed should the phone get dropped.

Why is Ars giving any credence to iFixit? Literally acting as a breathless conduit for their advertising?

I doubt that ANYONE gives a flip about their 'reparability scores.' (how about a 2nd (or 3rd) opinion?!?Like, DUH!!

These drama queens are only interested in drumming up business and Ars seems perfectly happy to let them do it.Pfft.

If I have a phone break, I'll either get the damned thing fixed under warranty (which is when anything is likely to pop) -or throw the thing away. I suspect others would do the same thing.

That's a very arrogant view. You are ignoring the huge grey market for users who are not in the USA or buy the phone second hand, for example users who want to wait six months to get the phone for one third the price on eBay, with no contract. We are dependent on our ability to fix the phone ourselves when things go pear shape.

WTF?!?Oh. I am SO sorry that thieves are having problems getting their gadgets fixed. My heart bleeds for you. And your ilk.Let me guess: you spend your Friday evenings on the streets of Kowloon, don't you?

Why is Ars giving any credence to iFixit? Literally acting as a breathless conduit for their advertising?

I doubt that ANYONE gives a flip about their 'reparability scores.' (how about a 2nd (or 3rd) opinion?!?Like, DUH!!

These drama queens are only interested in drumming up business and Ars seems perfectly happy to let them do it.Pfft.

If I have a phone break, I'll either get the damned thing fixed under warranty (which is when anything is likely to pop) -or throw the thing away. I suspect others would do the same thing.

That's a very arrogant view. You are ignoring the huge grey market for users who are not in the USA or buy the phone second hand, for example users who want to wait six months to get the phone for one third the price on eBay, with no contract. We are dependent on our ability to fix the phone ourselves when things go pear shape.

WTF?!?Oh. I am SO sorry that thieves are having problems getting their gadgets fixed. My heart bleeds for you. And your ilk.Let me guess: you spend your Friday evenings on the streets of Kowloon, don't you?

And you call iFixit drama queens?

Thank you, for putting a smile on my face!

Go ahead and grin. If you are incapable of understanding what this pirate was saying, well, damn.

That's quite ironic, you know.

I understand his point of view very well. I like fixing stuff. It saves money, and its fun and satisfying. That doesn't make me (or him) a thief or a pirate.

It is a real misnomer to say this has some kind of 'hidden LTE'. The phone uses the most advanced, lowest power, 28nm Qualcomm WTR1605L family chip for an RF/etc function.

It is *very* possible that Qualcomm is now producing a GSM only variant from this family due to their lower manufacturing costs at 28 nm and/or to satisfy demand for lower power. If this is true there is no reason to believe the LTE at the chip level is 'turned on' - ie: - The die pads required for that function may not be brought out to to BGA balls, to reduce package size and cost - This specific die may have failed LTE specific testing during manufacturing, and is really GSM only - Qualcomm may have inhibited the LTE function, and doesn't collect/pay any patent royalties to yield a lower cost.

In any event, there is no LTE RF chipset, so *there is no 'hidden' LTE capability*

I wish Ars would do a better job on these silicon related articles. If you don't understand how the silicon industry works, maybe you shouldn't make random breathless guesses..

Why is Ars giving any credence to iFixit? Literally acting as a breathless conduit for their advertising?

I doubt that ANYONE gives a flip about their 'reparability scores.' (how about a 2nd (or 3rd) opinion?!?Like, DUH!!

These drama queens are only interested in drumming up business and Ars seems perfectly happy to let them do it.Pfft.

If I have a phone break, I'll either get the damned thing fixed under warranty (which is when anything is likely to pop) -or throw the thing away. I suspect others would do the same thing.

That's a very arrogant view. You are ignoring the huge grey market for users who are not in the USA or buy the phone second hand, for example users who want to wait six months to get the phone for one third the price on eBay, with no contract. We are dependent on our ability to fix the phone ourselves when things go pear shape.

WTF?!?Oh. I am SO sorry that thieves are having problems getting their gadgets fixed. My heart bleeds for you. And your ilk.Let me guess: you spend your Friday evenings on the streets of Kowloon, don't you?

And you call iFixit drama queens?

Thank you, for putting a smile on my face!

Go ahead and grin. If you are incapable of understanding what this pirate was saying, well, damn.

That's quite ironic, you know.

I understand his point of view very well. I like fixing stuff. It saves money, and its fun and satisfying. That doesn't make me (or him) a thief or a pirate.

I agree. But in this case, you are being too politically correct. Whatever.

I for one would LOVE to see how anyone would be able to fix ANYTHING in a modern smartphone. If ya can do so, well you are a tech god.

In my garage, fixing anything pretty much scales to what I can see. As in; without a microscope.

Assuming someone could get the LTE chip working, wouldn't the phone still need CDMA support to work on carriers like Verizon?

For data you could do it with just an LTE sim. Voice on the other hand for the time being in the majority of places you would still require CDMA. But in the placeds where Verizon is currently testing VoLTE or voice over LTE the LTE sim should in let you do voice calls as well and the number of places that allow that should increase as verizon allows more areas to do VoLTE. Side note, I don't know if LTE allows any form of running data and voice simultaneously...

I for one would LOVE to see how anyone would be able to fix ANYTHING in a modern smartphone. If ya can do so, well you are a tech god.

In my garage, fixing anything pretty much scales to what I can see. As in; without a microscope.

Yay! I am a tech god. I replaced a battery in a smart phone! And I cleaned the contacts on a button that was sticking. I have heard of people replacing screens, but I have never had to do that.

Yes, it is essentially impossible to rework the ultra-high-density PCBs in modern portable electronics. Luckily, that stuff almost never goes bad. If it works off the assembly line, it is going to work forever. The stuff that breaks are buttons, batteries, and screens. I also know people who have dropped their phones in water (not covered under most warranties!) and disassembled them to let everything dry, and/or clean them with alcohol.

Fixing does not need to require soldering irons, and people do it all the time, even non-technical people. I don't know if iFixit's 'repairability score' is actually relevant -- I wouldn't give a 7 to something with a battery that couldn't be safely replaced, but it is a real issue, and you dismissing people who want to do so is insulting and arrogant.

Reporting the battery capacity is basically a meaningless spec number to 99.9% of Ars' audience. It's only meaningful when we know how much current the device needs for certain use cases.

It's shocking how bad bloggers and reviewers don't understand the specs they spout.

Totally incorrect. milliAmp-hours is a measure of electric charge: Coulombs per second / 1000 * hours = 3.6*Coulombs. To get energy we then need to multiply charge by the battery's output voltage: Coulombs * Joules per Coulomb = Joules. This is more properly referred to as the battery's capacity.

If we know the average current draw of the device and make the ideal assumption that the battery voltage stays constant (usually it drops a bit as the battery is drained) then we can directly calculate the battery life in hours: mAh / mA = h.

The point is, as long as you compare batteries of equal output voltage, milliAmp-hours tells us directly the relative amount of energy (or capacity) contained in each. Higher mAh indicates a proportionally longer battery life. In no way does it express a limitation on current draw as your post suggests.

To ShadowNode - I've implemented hardware reset capabilities through firmware (believe it or not). It's a pretty simple trick in which an NC relay is held open (disconnecting the battery) by the charge stored in a cap. There are many ways of programmatically disconnecting the battery, and I don't claim to know if or how it's done in this case...but it can be done.

To cadml - pressing and holding the power button for a specific period of time is one way that a firmware reset sequence might be triggered. Is this a documented function on the Nexus?

In general, I try to avoid inadvertent hard resets. Unfortunately, doing so can require a non-intuitive user interaction, which is not a good thing in products that people use. The nice thing about removing a battery is that it just makes sense to people. My human factors guys still haven't solved this interaction issue. Engineers often seem to assume that the end-user sees the product as they do. This can be a serious design mistake. Well designed products shouldn't need a manual, particularly if the product is mission critical.

It is a real misnomer to say this has some kind of 'hidden LTE'. The phone uses the most advanced, lowest power, 28nm Qualcomm WTR1605L family chip for an RF/etc function.

It is *very* possible that Qualcomm is now producing a GSM only variant from this family due to their lower manufacturing costs at 28 nm and/or to satisfy demand for lower power. If this is true there is no reason to believe the LTE at the chip level is 'turned on' - ie: - The die pads required for that function may not be brought out to to BGA balls, to reduce package size and cost - This specific die may have failed LTE specific testing during manufacturing, and is really GSM only - Qualcomm may have inhibited the LTE function, and doesn't collect/pay any patent royalties to yield a lower cost.

In any event, there is no LTE RF chipset, so *there is no 'hidden' LTE capability*

I wish Ars would do a better job on these silicon related articles. If you don't understand how the silicon industry works, maybe you shouldn't make random breathless guesses..

This. There are still plenty of interesting articles on Ars, thankfully, but it seems that it's become more common lately to see technical errors or dubious assumptions like this in Ars articles...

Pubert wrote:

I for one would LOVE to see how anyone would be able to fix ANYTHING in a modern smartphone. If ya can do so, well you are a tech god.

In my garage, fixing anything pretty much scales to what I can see. As in; without a microscope.

Are you seriously saying that a modern smartphone's screen, battery, buttons and connectors, for instance, are too small to see without a microscope ? Because if so, you may want to go see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible...

Joking aside: when people speak of repairing that sort of devices, they obviously don't mean replacing SMD soldered chips on the PCB and the like... They mean swapping out broken parts (cracked glass/screen, dodgy buttons or headphone jacks...) or replacing a supposedly non user-replaceable battery when it no longer holds the charge.

I've personally yet to do that on a smartphone, but I have already replaced the batteries in an iPod 5.5G and an iPod Classic, as well as the headphone jack on the latter, and both repairs were very easy once I got the damn things opened - I don't think it should be much different on a phone. They are a bit more tightly packed, but that shouldn't make a big difference as long as you're just swapping out standard parts.

It's interesting to note that the handset also contains the same a 3.8V 2100mAh battery as the iPhone 5.

As others have already mentioned in various ways, this statement is a bit misleading. If you read the iFixit teardown, it notes that the similarity between Apple's and LG's battery choices is that they are both 3.8V.

What they did not say, is that they contain the same battery, or even the same capacity battery, which is what the above quote from the article implies.

The Nexus 4's battery has around 46% greater capacity than that of the iPhone 5 (~8Wh vs. 5.45Wh). That is actually interesting to note, especially when comparing the battery life of the two devices.

But in the placeds where Verizon is currently testing VoLTE or voice over LTE the LTE sim should in let you do voice calls as well and the number of places that allow that should increase as verizon allows more areas to do VoLTE. Side note, I don't know if LTE allows any form of running data and voice simultaneously...

Verizon expects to officially launch VoLTE late next year. There are a couple of countries that have already launched it.

My understanding is that LTE cannot do voice at all, it only does data. But you can, of course, do voip over any data connection. Unfortunately voip is extremely complex, especially when you don't have much bandwidth available. Getting VoLTE to actually work reliably while a lot of people are trying to make phone calls at once might not be possible yet, and who knows when it will be possible.

So while LTE technically can handle phone calls, practically you still need a CDMA or HSDPA connection in addition to LTE on any phone and that's not going to change any time soon. I bet when Verizon does launch VoLTE it will still fall back to CDMA in many locations, and possibly even VoLTE towers will switch some customers to CDMA during high activity.

It's a bit of a mess, especially on the iPhone 5 where HSDPA and LTE share the same antenna, requiring the LTE chipset to shut down during voice calls.

So what happens when it crashes and it doesn't respond to hard key presses? It's rare, but i've had to pull out the battery of my Nexus a few times to reboot the thing.

I'd understand it if these phones cost $5 and you could just buy a new one but alas that is not the case. Stupid design is stupid.

If you're designing a device where the battery can't be removed you can fairly easily handle it. You can rely on firmware as already mentioned, or you can use a hardware solution. Relying on firmware is fine if you have a hardware watchdog, since it ought to reset the whole thing if the microcontroller is borked and if no borkage has taken place then the microcontroller software can do it.

I believe Nokia's version is hardware. As far as I can remember, the N8 and others have a reset circuit triggered when you hold the power button long enough to charge the tiny cap. All the processors can be hard locked and it is still able to be reset when necessary.

Not designing in any way to reset a device would be stupid, merely having a non-removable battery doesn't quite fall into that class. For devices with a removable battery, you don't need to do anything special since you can always pull it.

Any chance the latent LTE chip can be unlocked because that would kick ass though I am happy enough at the moment with fast HSPA+ from T-Mobile.

I wonder if that would help anyone, considering that you can't just byod to LTE networks. The have to be explicitly allowed by the carrier similar to how CDMA works. Not 100% sure on that though. Also, as Ars pointed out in earlier articles there are different flavors of LTE and VZW LTE is not necessarily compatible with AT&T.

Why is Ars giving any credence to iFixit? Literally acting as a breathless conduit for their advertising?

I doubt that ANYONE gives a flip about their 'reparability scores.' (how about a 2nd (or 3rd) opinion?!?Like, DUH!!

These drama queens are only interested in drumming up business and Ars seems perfectly happy to let them do it.Pfft.

If I have a phone break, I'll either get the damned thing fixed under warranty (which is when anything is likely to pop) -or throw the thing away. I suspect others would do the same thing.

That's a very arrogant view.

Agreed. That's arrogant even for the USA. Unless you pay through the nose for an extended warranty there is a pretty huge gap between the time your warranty runs out and the time you are eligible for an upgrade. So at least for the iphone, traditionaly, it's $100 for apple to repair the screen or $8 to buy the glass online and do it yourself. I've repaired my iphone twice for less than $20. That sure beats buying a new phone.

I'm waiting to see if otterbox comes out with a "defender" case for the nexus. Do they traditionaly support google products?

Assuming someone could get the LTE chip working, wouldn't the phone still need CDMA support to work on carriers like Verizon?

You are never going to see another Nexus on Verizon after the Galaxy Nexus LTE fiasco. Period.

Except that your statement is completely incorrect, but umm nice try? Google just said they aren't going to be making multiple chips which ends up with a multiple radio situation. That has nothing to do with your imaginary nexus LTE fiasco, which was resolved long enough ago to have never have been such a fiasco.

Once every US carrier is on LTE which surprise surprise is moving forward already to a good degree, don't be surprised if it becomes available on all carriers.

I thought the original poster was talking about how Verizon made a Nexus branded device into a non-Nexus by loading bloatware onto it and delaying updates by several months. The Nexus branding is supposed to be synonymous with "updates almost immediately, direct from Google" and Verizon attempted to neuter that branding. We all saw how Galaxy Nexus phones on AT&T or T-Mobile got their Android 4.1 update right away while Verizon phones waited about 3 or 4 months. That type of behavior is why I would think you won't be seeing a Nexus branded device on Verizon again anytime soon. It is also why I will be canceling my Verizon contract and joining the rest of my family on AT&T as soon as Google will sell me a Nexus 4. (Tried and tried on launch day - got as far as the select a shipping address screen, but their site kept erroring out - two other guys within 5 offices of me had the same problem; none of us has gotten a Nexus 4 yet).

Ok, so, there isn't enough of a platform war going on in this thread, better get it started by mentioning Apple

No, not that, but I want to put into question the iFixit rating which gives the 13'' MBP a lousy 2/10 reparability score because of a fused display, a glued battery and the requirement of $8 pentalobe screwdrivers, all three points are indeed valid reasons to slap Apple in its anthropomorphized face. However… All this while the Nexus 4 gets a 7/10 and the only main differentiator is fewer types of (standard) screws for the phone?

I for one would LOVE to see how anyone would be able to fix ANYTHING in a modern smartphone. If ya can do so, well you are a tech god.

In my garage, fixing anything pretty much scales to what I can see. As in; without a microscope.

Are you seriously saying that a modern smartphone's screen, battery, buttons and connectors, for instance, are too small to see without a microscope ? Because if so, you may want to go see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible...

Joking aside: when people speak of repairing that sort of devices, they obviously don't mean replacing SMD soldered chips on the PCB and the like... They mean swapping out broken parts (cracked glass/screen, dodgy buttons or headphone jacks...) or replacing a supposedly non user-replaceable battery when it no longer holds the charge.

I've personally yet to do that on a smartphone, but I have already replaced the batteries in an iPod 5.5G and an iPod Classic, as well as the headphone jack on the latter, and both repairs were very easy once I got the damn things opened - I don't think it should be much different on a phone. They are a bit more tightly packed, but that shouldn't make a big difference as long as you're just swapping out standard parts.

Or you might want to replace a certain very special spring on your G2, so your hinge doesn't flap. Learned helplessness is never a good idea.

Ok, so, there isn't enough of a platform war going on in this thread, better get it started by mentioning Apple

No, not that, but I want to put into question the iFixit rating which gives the 13'' MBP a lousy 2/10 reparability score because of a fused display, a glued battery and the requirement of $8 pentalobe screwdrivers, all three points are indeed valid reasons to slap Apple in its anthropomorphized face. However… All this while the Nexus 4 gets a 7/10 and the only main differentiator is fewer types of (standard) screws for the phone?

I pretty much ignore any scores iFixit gives out. Because of things such as you raised they seem to have an axe to grind. I just take the information, and make my own score.

The point is, as long as you compare batteries of equal output voltage, milliAmp-hours tells us directly the relative amount of energy (or capacity) contained in each. Higher mAh indicates a proportionally longer battery life. In no way does it express a limitation on current draw as your post suggests.

Maybe you should read what my post says again?

Whether the battery capacity is reported in mAh or WHr or Volts x amps, it doesn't matter whatsoever to the vast majority of the folks out there.

The only important thing to know is how long the device will last in use, how hot it gets, etc. Knowing the battery capacity doesn't answer those questions. You can figure it out if you knew the power consumption of the display, SoC and radios, but obviously, those details are trade secrets.

You can't compare battery capacities across devices if you don't know the power consumption of the devices. And then there are issues complicated by software too.

Especially these days, with money short and smartphones fast losing their black-box mystique, people are inclined to look online for fixes to problems if their phone is out of warranty, to avoid the cost of a new one.

Right. Well, if you have friends that are able to replace SMT cell phone components on their own, I strongly suspect they have more money than you think.

No-one said anything about surface-mount components, the article (and ifixit) discusses bulk components like batteries, and screens (which are probably the most commonly replaced component of any phone, possibly barring iPhone 4s and their rear glass panel).

Especially these days, with money short and smartphones fast losing their black-box mystique, people are inclined to look online for fixes to problems if their phone is out of warranty, to avoid the cost of a new one.

Right. Well, if you have friends that are able to replace SMT cell phone components on their own, I strongly suspect they have more money than you think.

No-one said anything about surface-mount components, the article (and ifixit) discusses bulk components like batteries, and screens (which are probably the most commonly replaced component of any phone, possibly barring iPhone 4s and their rear glass panel).

I thought this Nexus 4 also had a glass back? Though it would likely be a bit early to know if it is fragile or not.

The point is, as long as you compare batteries of equal output voltage, milliAmp-hours tells us directly the relative amount of energy (or capacity) contained in each. Higher mAh indicates a proportionally longer battery life. In no way does it express a limitation on current draw as your post suggests.

Maybe you should read what my post says again?

Whether the battery capacity is reported in mAh or WHr or Volts x amps, it doesn't matter whatsoever to the vast majority of the folks out there.

The only important thing to know is how long the device will last in use, how hot it gets, etc. Knowing the battery capacity doesn't answer those questions. You can figure it out if you knew the power consumption of the display, SoC and radios, but obviously, those details are trade secrets.

You can't compare battery capacities across devices if you don't know the power consumption of the devices. And then there are issues complicated by software too.

Er, not correct. Of course you can compare battery capacities between devices, that's simple a property of the battery. Suspect you're trying to say that comparison is not *useful* if the devices have different power consumption characteristics.

Also suspect you meant to say that you can't compare battery LIFE across devices.

Er, not correct. Of course you can compare battery capacities between devices, that's simple a property of the battery. Suspect you're trying to say that comparison is not *useful* if the devices have different power consumption characteristics.

Also suspect you meant to say that you can't compare battery LIFE across devices.

It looks like you agree with his point, but are just nit-picking his wording. Comparing battery capacities (1400 mAh vs 2100 mAh) across different devices is only useful when the devices have similar power usage characteristics, but battery life (e.g. the device can/can't last through a full day/x hours of "average use" on one charge) is a more general measure that can be compared between different devices.

Er, not correct. Of course you can compare battery capacities between devices, that's simple a property of the battery. Suspect you're trying to say that comparison is not *useful* if the devices have different power consumption characteristics.

Also suspect you meant to say that you can't compare battery LIFE across devices.

It looks like you agree with his point, but are just nit-picking his wording. Comparing battery capacities (1400 mAh vs 2100 mAh) across different devices is only useful when the devices have similar power usage characteristics, but battery life (e.g. the device can/can't last through a full day/x hours of "average use" on one charge) is a more general measure that can be compared between different devices.

I'd him to use the right terms, say what he means, and make sense.

What you say is largely true. The problem is, he wasn't actually saying that.

Er, not correct. Of course you can compare battery capacities between devices, that's simple a property of the battery. Suspect you're trying to say that comparison is not *useful* if the devices have different power consumption characteristics.

Yes on the latter sentence.

Quote:

Also suspect you meant to say that you can't compare battery LIFE across devices.

No.

Battery life means how long a device will last under certain use cases, no? Then, that's the basically only thing to compare.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.